00:00Alan I suppose the simplest question and the most difficult one is how are you
00:04feeling right now? Over the moon, over the moon. Finally my daughter's got justice.
00:12She really has. And all families involved. How good does it feel that you don't have
00:20to do this anymore? Great, great. We've got closure and we can move on and know that we've
00:27done justice for Elena and her family. Shane March was originally jailed for life
00:33with a minimum term of 42 years last October for the murder of 32-year-old Alana Odysseus,
00:41whom he stabbed and slashed 23 times at her home in Walthamstow in July of 2024. The 48-year-old
00:52had been released from prison on a life license in 2013 after fatally stabbing 17-year-old Andre
00:59Drummond in the neck at a McDonald's restaurant in Denmark Hill in January 2000. The Solicitor-General
01:08referred his second life sentence to the Court of Appeal, with barristers telling a hearing on
01:13Thursday that March should have been given a whole life order. However, March also challenged the length
01:20of his sentence from his barristers, claiming it was manifestly excessive. In a ruling, Lord Justice
01:28Edith, sitting with Mr Justice Kavanagh and Judge Alice Robinson, said the sentence was unduly lenient
01:35and placed a whole life order, which means that Shane March will never be released from prison.
01:42March's trial at the Old Bailey heard that Miss Odysseus, who had been in the early stages of
01:48pregnancy with her third child at the time of her death, knew about his murder conviction with
01:54safeguarding checks made by probation services. March of Surrey Quays in South East London admitted
02:02her murder on the seventh day of his trial, after an expert no longer supported his defence of
02:09diminished responsibility. Tom Little, for the Solicitor-General, told the Court of Appeal in
02:15written submissions that March and Miss Odysseus had been in a relationship for around four months,
02:21during which time March attacked her and stopped her from talking to her family or friends.
02:27Shane March, in the early hours of the 22nd July 2024, you stabbed Elena Odysseus to death,
02:33killing her when she was pregnant with your child, leaving her then two-year-old daughter an orphan
02:39and devastating the lives of her family forever. In termining the appropriate minimum term you must
02:46serve for your life sentence, I've had regard to all of the evidence presented at your trial,
02:51a careful assessment of the culpability of factors leading to my conclusion that the seriousness of your
02:58offence was particularly high.
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